


A Kingdom Made of Fire and Ice

by bibliomaniac



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, and maybe make out a bit with victor, but that is beside, ice skaters are mages, the point, victor is an ice spirit, who accidentally started a legend about himself, yuuri is a fire mage with anxiety problems who just wants to go home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-30 16:24:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 11,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8540122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibliomaniac/pseuds/bibliomaniac
Summary: There is a legend in the land. It tells of a beautiful but lonely princess, trapped within an ice castle, waiting always for someone to find her and set her free.Katsuki Yuuri never set out to find the princess. He never set out to find anything other than himself. But, as happens so often in so many stories, in the end he found everything he needed and more.((aka the story in which victor is an ice princess bc why not))





	1. Prologue: A Fitting End

**Author's Note:**

> Brin: ice princess yuri on ice au  
> pixelized: Yess  
> Brin: HAVE YOU SEEN IT  
> Brin: ICE PRINCESS I MEAN  
> pixelized: Oh I didn't know that's a thing I thought you meant something like frozen  
> Brin: aw no  
> pixelized: What is it?  
> Brin: it’s a disney original  
> Brin: ice princess y!!oi (unaffiliated with the movie) au might be funny too tho

There is a legend in the land. It tells of a beautiful but lonely princess, trapped within an ice castle, waiting always for someone to find her and set her free.

When the rumor was first told, many attempts were made to find the princess, but all to no avail. Knights and mages alike were left with nothing to show for their efforts but chilblains and chapped lips. Eventually, rumor became myth, and the princess in the ice became nothing more than a story told at night when the world was lit only with candles and lost dreams.

Katsuki Yuuri never set out to find the princess. He never set out to find anything other than himself. But, as happens so often in so many stories, in the end he found everything he needed and more.

This is that story.

It starts with Yuuri being told, kindly enough, that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a great mage.

“Yuuri,” the test administrator says with sympathy in her voice. “It’s obvious from the initial testing you have some talent, but…you just don’t perform well under pressure, and this is a high-pressure position.”

It’s true, too. Yuuri’s power is elemental in nature—fire, to be specific—but it’s also incredibly fickle. He can only really conjure it when he’s feeling intense emotion, and even then he can’t control it. 

If only embarrassment counted as an intense emotion, he thinks bitterly. I would be able to conjure all the time.

“Um…yeah. No, I get it.” He tries to smile, but fails. “Thanks anyway.”

“Of course. Be well.”

“You also,” he responds on autopilot, and turns around to leave behind the last chance he had at his dreams.

\---------------

“Aw, Yuuri,” his mother coos, attempting to cheer him up. “You know that even if you aren’t with the King’s Mages, there’s always someplace for you here.”

“Yeah, I know, Ma.” He sighs and lays his head on the table. “I just…really wished there was a place for me with them too.”

“You’ll always find your place where you need to be, not necessarily where you want to be,” his father pipes up. “For example, I certainly never thought I would be running an onsen in the middle of an ice kingdom!”

“Me neither,” nods his mother. “Definitely not.”

“And yet, here we both are.”

“Mm.” Yuuri turns over on his bed, staring at his childish illustrations of the legendary ice princess. She always used to be his inspiration. The legend says she built the ice castle in which she lives herself, something which would require the utmost talent and control. He soaked up every tale about her that he could find. But what has she done for him in the end? He shakes his head and gets up. “I’m going for a walk.”

“Yuuri, it’s a blizzard out there. You’ll get lost.”

“I’ll be fine.” He manages another fake smile. “And hey, maybe frostbite counts as an extreme emotion.”

“That’s not very funny,” his mom mutters, while his dad chuckles. She hits him on the shoulder.

He bundles up in his warmest clothes and lights a lantern. His parents and sister watch him worriedly, but he waves off their concerns and waves goodbye.

“I’ll be back in maybe an hour. Don’t wait up.”

“You know I will. Come back to us safe,” calls his mother to his retreating form. “That boy, I swear.”

“Stop worrying. He’ll be fine.”

As it happens, Yuuri does not end up being fine. Well, maybe eventually, but in the short term, he gets lost in the blizzard.

He peers around and sees nothing except snow. Every direction looks the same. If he’s being accurate, there’s a small hill in one direction, but other than that everything looks the same. Without a better lead to go on, he heads towards the small hill, but he knows that things are pretty bleak right now. People don’t come back from blizzards like this unless there’s some sort of miracle, and his life has been decidedly free of miracles or anything resembling them thus far.

He sighs, his breath coming out in puffs of white air, and shivers for what must be the thousandth time in the past, like, minute. His lantern went out a long time ago. Maybe if he were a better fire mage and his head were less fuzzy he could light it again, but he isn’t and it’s not, so he’s left with no lantern, icy clothes, and a sneaking suspicion that he’s got the beginnings of frostbite on his toes and fingers.

Oh well, he thinks as a sudden wave of tiredness comes over him and he drops to the ground. This is really just more of the same, isn’t it? An unimpressive end to a decidedly unimpressive life. How fitting.

\---------------

He wakes up on fire.

His mind still isn’t really operating at full capacity, so this fact doesn’t really fully register for a bit, just that he’s pleasantly warm and apparently in some sort of building.

“That’s lovely, but isn’t it sort of dangerous?” comes a cheerful voice from out of nowhere.

He looks slowly at his arm, which is on fire, and suddenly realizes. That it is on fire.

“CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!” He starts rolling around frenziedly, the new guest watching with interest. “DON’T JUST SIT THERE WATCHING, GET ME SOME WATER, OR—”

“Are you thirsty?” inquires the voice with curiosity. 

“NO! I AM ON FIRE!”

“Well, yes.”

“I DO NOT WANT TO BE THAT WAY!” Yuuri is panicking at this point.

“Oh, really?” 

Water comes pouring out of the air from nowhere, drenching Yuuri and leaving him shivering, but not on fire.

“Th-thanks.” He finally looks up at his ‘rescuer’. 

Whoever it is is the most beautiful man he’s ever seen. He has long silver hair and an innocent smile. He is also completely naked.

“Good God,” Yuuri says, incredulous and slightly affronted. And, um, maybe a bit turned on. But. Only a bit.

“No,” the man responds happily. “I’m Victor, actually.”


	2. Lesson One

“You’re not wearing any clothes.”

“Nope!” The man, Victor, is beaming.

“Can you put some on?”

Victor pouts. “Why?” 

“Because you’re naked!”

“Yes, we established that, I thought.”

“It’s indecent!” Yuuri is blushing now, babbling wildly. “You can’t just go around without clothes, even if you are very, um…anyway, you just can’t do it.” 

Victor tilts his head to the side. “Interesting. Well, all right.” He waves his hand nonchalantly, and a sparkling ensemble starts to form around his body. “There.”

Yuuri gapes. “But…the control it would take to make clothes out of ice…”

“Would you rather I go back to no clothes?” inquires Victor. He looks hopeful.

“No, no! It’s just, well. Pretty amazing.” For the first time, Yuuri looks at his surroundings. “So is this room. What is this place?” 

“It’s where I live.”

“It’s like a castle,” Yuuri marvels, “except…made of…” He pauses. “Wait.”

“Yes?”

Yuuri squints at Victor. Then he squints at the rest of the room, then back at Victor. (The squinting is mostly because his glasses aren’t on. He really hopes they didn’t get lost in the blizzard, too.)

“You’re…are you…?”

Victor is starting to look impatient. “Victor, my name is Victor. Really, I just told you that, you could—”

“The ice princess!” Yuuri yelps excitedly, pointing at Victor. “You’re the ice princess! You live in a castle made of ice, and you have long princess hair, and—”

Victor feels his hair and asks mildly, “Should I be offended?”

“No, no! Obviously the story got a few details wrong, like—like gender, but—” Victor reaches to push up his glasses out of habit and ends up poking his nose, but continues excitedly, “You were my hero when I was younger! I can’t believe you’re real, I—”

“Hey.”

“—the technical mastery required to make this kind of building is just immense, and—”

“Hey…you.”

“—drawings on my wall—not, um, not that you needed to know that, crap—”

“Hey, you, with the name that I don’t know yet,” Victor says forcefully. “You are once again on fire. And you are melting the bed.”

That gets Yuuri’s attention and, what do you know, he is on fire again. The bed gives out beneath him and he goes crashing to the floor.

The fire immediately goes out as embarrassment washes through him. “I am so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Victor says, placid again like nothing had happened. “It’s actually kind of cute.”

Yuuri is blushing properly now. “Wha—”

Victor keeps on going. “Does this always happen?”

“Only when I’m feeling intense emotion,” Yuuri mutters, ashamed. “I can’t control it.”

“I see.” Victor’s eyes are calculating now. “You know, I don’t see fire too often out here. But it’s beautiful, don’t you think?”

“It’s more beautiful when it is not on me, but sure,” Yuuri says confusedly.

“I’d like to see more fire. So here’s the deal. I’ll teach you to control your flames.”

Yuuri bites his lip. That sounds amazing, but… “And what do you get?”

“You tell me…” Victor suddenly looks somewhat vulnerable. “You tell me about what it’s like out there, with other people. About humans, and why it’s important to wear clothes, and about yourself.”

“Me?” Yuuri whispers. “I’m not interesting.”

“I think you’re very interesting.” Victor is smiling again. “You can start with telling me your name.”

“Oh, sorry! Yuuri,” Yuuri says, and extends his hand for a shake. “Katsuki Yuuri.”

Victor looks down at Yuuri’s proffered hand dubiously. “What do you want me to do with this?”

Yuuri laughs and reaches out for Victor’s hand, shaking it. “Lesson one. Out there, we shake hands when we meet each other.”

“I see.” Victor’s ice blue eyes are sparkling like his clothes. “So, we have a deal?”

“We have a deal.” Yuuri smiles awkwardly, then reflects on what Victor said. “Wait, humans? You say that like you’re not one.”

Victor draws back, affronted. “Of course I’m not a human. I’m an ice spirit, obviously.”

“Oh.” Yuuri thinks back on his knowledge of ice spirits. Mischievous, powerful, make soul-bonded deals—

_“Oh.”_

“Something wrong?” Victor’s smile has widened. He looks smug.

“You tricked me!”

“Oh, only a little,” Victor waves. “And all you have to do is hold up your end of the bargain, right?”

Yuuri moans. He’s tired, he’s so so cold, and he just made a deal with his soul on the line with an ice spirit.

“I want to go home.”

“Too bad!” Victor chirps. “You’re starting to turn blue-colored, by the way. Is that normal?”

“No! I need to get out of my clothes, and you need to leave.”

Victor’s face falls. “What? You get to wear no clothes, and I don’t?! But that’s not fair at all—”

“If I wear these clothes any longer I will turn more blue and then I will die, Victor! And I don’t want you to see me naked!”

“Why not?” Victor whines. “You’re no fun at all.”

“Lesson two, humans are not fun when they are dying! Now, out!”

Victor leaves the room, mumbling something about boring humans all the while, and Yuuri gets out of his clothes, shivering intensely. He actually wouldn’t mind some of that fire right now.

The door opens again, and Yuuri shrieks, “Victor!”

“Oh, hush. I’m saving your life so that you will be more fun.” He drops a large comforter and a change of clothes on the ground. “Some other lost soul left these a long time ago. I figured you could use them. Plus, that way, we both have to suffer being clothed.”

Yuuri pauses. “That’s actually really nice, Victor. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Victor’s grin comes back and he sings while dancing out of the room, “Also, I got to see you naked!”

“VICTOR!”

“Don’t worry, you’re adorable,” Victor says, voice muffled by the frosted ice door. “So much extra padding. I love it.”

Yuuri pokes at his chub and feels a little bit like crying. His life _sucks._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is incredibly silly


	3. The Basics

“Gooooooood morning!” Victor yells happily as he barges into the room. “Get up, get up! Stop being lazy!”

Yuuri groans. “Do I have to?”

“If you don’t want to lose your soul, yes!” Victor chirps with an obnoxious wink. 

Yuuri shoots him a dirty look, but Victor just returns a grin.

“Fine. But you have to get out while I get dressed.”

“Dressed?” Victor inquires, pointedly not leaving.

“It was a warm comforter,” Yuuri mutters, embarrassed. “And I usually sleep, um…”

“Yuuri!” Victor exclaims as he catches on, utterly delighted. “Are you naked right now?”

Yuuri drags his hand over his face. He’s already exhausted. “Yes, Victor, so you need to leave.”

“I don’t understand why you’re so stingy,” Victor says mulishly. “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Yuuri flushes. “Th-thanks. But it’s still…out there people aren’t naked in front of each other unless they’re, um, like lovers.”

Victor’s gaze narrows speculatively.

“Which we are _not_ ,” Yuuri says emphatically, “so, as I keep saying, please leave while I put on some clothes!”

Victor sighs dramatically, calling out as he leaves the room, “ _No_ fun!”

After he puts on the new clothes—Victor brought a few pairs—he exits the room. Victor is waiting impatiently outside. “Come on! You’re so slow.”

Yuuri rolls his eyes at the exaggeration—he took a few minutes at most, mostly because he didn’t have his glasses, which reminds him. “Hey, when you found me, did you find any glasses?”

“Any whats?”

“Like…” He gestures vaguely. “It looks like two circles with glass inside them, and, um…”

“Oh! The things on your face, yes. I took them.”

“Why?”

“I collect fun things,” Victor says, waving off the question with his hands. “They looked fun.” He heaves another sigh. “You looked fun too, but I obviously missed the mark there.”

Yuuri ignores the insult. “Where did you put them? I need them to see.”

“In my room! Here, come, I’ll show you.”

Yuuri follows dutifully behind Victor, who excitedly opens the door to his room like a child might present a favorite toy. There’s beautiful ice everywhere, littered with detritus from the outside world. A snowshoe, a carved bone flute, a small stuffed dog.

It’s probably the saddest thing Yuuri has ever seen.

Victor notices Yuuri’s gaze and says, “That’s Makkachin. He’s my friend!” Victor shifts nervously and asks, “What do you think?”

“It’s…nice. Really nice.”

All of the tension releases from Victor’s body, and he beams. “Thanks! Your thingies are right here.”

“Glasses,” Yuuri corrects, taking them from Victor’s hands, which are ice cold. He supposes he shouldn’t be surprised. He puts them on, the world suddenly coming into vivid focus. 

“Sure,” Victor says dismissively, already moving out of the room. “Anyway, let’s get started already.”

Yuuri follows behind Victor again. Able to see him clearly for the first time, he’s struck again by how attractive the spirit really is. He has high cheekbones, a strong jawline, and that hair…Yuuri sort of wants to touch it, to see if it’s as soft as it looks. Victor would probably let him, too, but not without a lot of teasing. Yuuri decides against it.

They go out into a kind of courtyard, and Victor sits down cross-legged on the snow, looking up at a confused Yuuri expectantly. “Okay, go.”

“Huh?”

“With the fire.”

“I-I told you I can’t conjure unless—”

“Yeah, you did. And I’m here to tell you that’s ridiculous.”

“…What?”

“Magic isn’t something that’s brought on by emotion. It’s an extension of you, of your thoughts, of your will. Put simply, if you want to conjure, it’ll happen.” Victor tilts his head with an irritating smile. “I’m forced to conclude that when you say you can’t conjure most of the time, it’s because you don’t want it hard enough.”

“I—I—” Yuuri feels indignation rise in him. “I want nothing more than to be able to control my fire! How dare—”

“Then make it happen,” Victor says. 

“It’s not that simple!” Yuuri says through clenched teeth. “I can’t just—”

“You can, or we’re done here.” Victor shrugs. “Like I said. Simple.”

Yuuri sees red, and he bursts out, “Where do you get off, telling me what I do and don’t want, what I can and can’t make happen! I know myself better than you do, you two-bit pervert, and—”

“Yuuri.”

“—bet you do this all the time, like some kind of con man—”

“Yuuri. You are incredibly hard to get a hold of when you’re ranting, you know that?”

“—taking advantage of the weak and uncertain—”

“Yuuri! You! Are! On! Fire!”

Yuuri pauses confusedly. “Well, thanks, but—”

“No, Yuuri, you’re literally on fire.”

He looks down at his hand, which is spouting angry flames. “Oh.”

“I lied,” Victor says placidly. “Elemental magic, especially fire, is totally affected by emotion. You’re very easy to get riled up. What’s a pervert, by the way?”

“Um…nothing,” Yuuri says awkwardly, the flames starting to dim. 

“No, no! Stay angry. Wasn’t I irritating just now?”

“Yes,” Yuuri says dryly. “It is also irritating how delighted you are by that fact.”

“Isn’t it, though?” Victor says cheerfully. “Now, look into yourself, into your core. Where are the flames coming from?”

“Aren’t they coming from me being angry?”

“Not exactly. I said I was lying, but I was partially lying about lying, too. Magic is about will. Strong emotion just overrides the barriers you place on yourself.”

“That I put on myself? What does that mean?”

“When you’re conjuring in front of other people, do you ever think about how badly you want not to disappoint them, or how you need to make the right hand movements, or how much you want to be eating lunch?” Victor shrugs again, casually. “Barriers. You have to be entirely focused on the magic itself when you conjure, and on what you want to do with it. Strong emotions like anger or happiness or self-preservation can override those because you’re no longer thinking about those trivial things, but it’s impractical to rely on that all the time.”

“You’re saying that all this time I’ve been holding myself back?”

“Yes,” Victor says simply. “Now, focus. Where are the flames coming from?”

Yuuri attempts to put aside his embarrassment at his failings, at not being good enough, and concentrates. “They’re…coming from…” He lets the warmth envelop him. “From my heart?”

“Yes, good!” Victor praises. “More accurately, they’re coming from your soul, which happens to be housed near your heart. I mean, right lung if we’re being particular, but. All magic comes from the soul.”

“Is that why spirits are so powerful?” Yuuri reasons. “Since they get the souls from soul-bonded deals.”

Victor pauses, then gives a disconcerting, wolfish smile, singing, “That’s a ~secret~!”

“…Ooooo…kay.”

“Anyway, point is, if you have control over your soul you have control over your magic. That kind of control comes from study, practice, and self-reflection,” Victor recites, sounding almost bored. “That’s the basics, so tell me a story.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I gave you a lesson! So now you give me one. Remember, it’s for your soul!” He winks again, and Yuuri’s flames spit out little tendrils, almost like they’re as fed up with Victor as Yuuri is.

“…Fine. What do you want to hear about?”

“Tell me about perverts!”

Yuuri could swear his eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets from how hard he chokes at that. “Um.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> victor...my sad lonely ice child...........


	4. Variance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw food mention

Victor sulks for the rest of the day after that particular ‘story’. The next day, he sneaks into Yuuri’s room and pulls his comforter off.

If the sudden feeling of frigid air on his skin isn’t enough to wake him up, the piercing whistle is.

“Wh—h—VICTOR!”

“Good morning,” Victor says with a vicious smirk. “Still sleeping naked, I see. Isn’t that a bit…perverted?”

Covering up his crotch with his fingers and unable to meet Victor’s eyes, Yuuri yells, “Look who’s talking!”

“Your blush goes down quite far,” Victor comments casually. “Have I mentioned you’re adorable?”

“Get out!”

“Fine, fine. It’s time for practice. Put some clothes on, would you? Wouldn’t want to be a _pervert_ ,” Victor throws over his shoulder as he saunters out of the room.

Yuuri sputters, pulling his clothes on in record time.

As he runs after Victor to the courtyard, Yuuri misses the feeling of having breakfast, even if he doesn’t need it. Victor explained about food yesterday, sort of—there’s some sort of spell on the castle, a kind of time bubble, that slows down time and keeps food from being necessary. Victor doesn’t eat anyway, not exactly, he said evasively. Yuuri asked why he’d need a time bubble then—spirits are immortal, so that’s not the reason—but Victor changed the subject pretty quickly.

“All right, now draw the flames out from your soul. If you need to, draw upon your emotions. Think of something that makes you happy.”

“…Katsudon.”

“Whatadon?”

“Pork cutlet bowls. My mom makes them. They’re amazing.”

“Mom…?” Victor looks lost for a second, then shakes his head, his usual easy grin back on his face. “Well, that’s unusual, but sure. Think of your whatsitdon.”

“Katsudon.”

“Sure. Anyway, think of that and concentrate only on the feeling of fire in your soul. Envision what you want it to look like. Previously you’ve been flaming all over your body, but that’s sort of like a default. Try focusing all of your energy into your finger and make a small light. Remember, nothing else matters but you and the flame.”

Yuuri concentrates on the feeling he has when he eats his mother’s katsudon, on the feeling of warmth he gets in his chest, and he pushes it out to his finger, and—

“Nice!” Victor says mildly. “You shot a hole into my castle.”

Yuuri’s eyes shoot open. There’s a small hole in the side of the castle wall. “Crap.”

“That’s all right.” Victor waves his hand dismissively, and the hole closes up. “You put all of the power from a full-body flame into your finger, so it shot out in a straight line. But you did it!”

“I did it,” Yuuri repeats disbelievingly. “I did it!”

“Yeah, that’s what I just said. Anyway, I gave you a lesson, so you have to give me one. What’s a…mother?” That vulnerable look is back on his face, and Yuuri can’t even bring himself to argue.

“It’s the person who brings you into this world. They care for you and help you and cook for you and stuff. Or, well, some of them do, if they’re around and they’re nice.”

“Was yours nice?”

“My mom? Yeah.” Yuuri smiles peacefully, leaning back on his hands and looking up at the arctic sky. “The nicest. She always supports me in everything, and she knows me really well. She’s…probably really worried about me right now.” Yuuri’s face falls at that realization. “I want to go home.”

Victor’s face twists into a scowl. “You can’t. You’re here with me right now.”

“I know. But I still want to go home.”

Victor’s lips press together, and he gets up and starts to leave. “Keep practicing. Lower the power level, make it small. No more holes in my castle.”

“Victor?” Yuuri calls out. “Where are you going?”

“I…need…” He stops in his tracks, looking suddenly very small. “I need to be alone right now.”

Yuuri pauses, confused. “Are you sure?”

“Yes! Leave me alone.”

“Well, okay.” 

Yuuri goes back to concentrating, and Victor goes to his room and holds Makkachin close to his chest, whispering, “…Mother.” His head hurts.

\-------------------

Next morning, Yuuri is awake and dressed by the time Victor enters into his room. Victor pouts, but he seems back to his old self. 

“All right! Today we practice varying the size of the flame.”

By the end of several weeks, Yuuri can conjure simple flames, vary their size, and is working on placement and aim of fire projectiles. Victor is a harsh teacher, but Yuuri’s control has never been better. In return, Victor asks him questions.

Victor’s questions about the outside world are always sort of strange. He never asks about family again, but he has questions about everything else. Why do humans go blue when they’re cold? What’s Yuuri’s house like? Why were you wandering around in the snow anyway?

“I got rejected by the King’s Mages. It’s been my dream ever since I was small to join them.”

Victor nods contemplatively. “Who are the King’s Mages?”

Yuuri straightens up at the mention of his favorite subject. “The King’s Mages are a group of people who do good around the country,” Yuuri babbles excitedly. “They’re all magic users and they go on direct assignment from the King to help out common people! They also unite against magical threats to keep the kingdom safe from harm. They’re super cool!”

“I see.”

“Fire mages are super important since we live in an ice kingdom. It’s pretty much a guaranteed in if you have the fire element.” Yuuri looks sadly at his hands. “If you can control it, anyway. There’s a saying that the kingdom may be made mostly of ice, but it’s built on fire.”

“Why can’t it be both?”

Yuuri laughs. “Fire and ice don’t go together, everyone knows that.”

“I think we go together pretty well.”

Yuuri can’t explain why that sentiment turns him pink, especially because it’s true. He and Victor get along quite well if they put aside their differences. He just mutters, “That’s not the same thing,” and returns to bouncing a small flame between his hands.

“Hm. Well…your control is getting better quickly,” Victor says. “I think if you go back, they’ll accept you right away.”

“When I go back,” Yuuri corrects.

“…Yeah,” Victor says, and a shadow falls across his face. “When you go back.”

Yuuri can’t explain why he suddenly feels the need to reassure Victor, either, but he blurts out, “You could come with me. See all of the things I’ve been telling you about, you know.”

“Into the kingdom?” Victor brightens immediately. “With you?”

“Yeah! It’d be fun. You could meet everyone, and eat katsudon, and…”

“Maybe…maybe I could.” Victor looks hopeful. 

“Yeah! Let’s plan on it.”

Victor laughs, bright and beautiful. “Like a deal?”

Yuuri shoots him a dirty look. “No.”

“Joking.”

“I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eh not too fond of this chapter but w/e w/e (lol like what else is new)
> 
> this chapter is ~~almost entirely foreshadowing~~ ;)


	5. Exchange

Three months. He’s been here three months. He misses home still, but he finds himself becoming more comfortable with Victor as well. It’s an almost contradictory feeling, pulling him between two places he’s realizing are increasingly precious to him.

If he’s being honest with himself, it’s not the ice castle that’s precious to him, really, but the master of it. While Victor’s antics had been irritating at first, now they’re just endearing. He’s hesitant to call their relationship a friendship, for some reason. It feels closer than that somehow, in a way he can’t quite place.

“So, you mentioned humans shake hands when they meet each other. Why is that?”

Yuuri wrinkles his brows. “I’ve never really thought about it, but I guess because it’s a sign that you trust someone. When you touch someone, you show that you trust them to not hurt you, or like…pull out a knife or something.”

“So the more you trust someone, the more you touch them?” Victor inquires thoughtfully.

“Uh…maybe? Sort of?”

Victor nods, then throws himself forward to hug Yuuri.

Yuuri reels back, but Victor clutches tight. “Whoa!”

“I’m displaying my trust for you by touching you!” Victor says brightly, looking directly into Yuuri’s eyes. 

_His face is. Really close,_ Yuuri thinks nervously. They’re so close that if Yuuri just…leaned forward…

He scrambles backwards at that thought, slipping out of Victor’s hold. That’s quite enough of that line of thinking. “I get it, you trust me! Jeez!”

Victor gives Yuuri puppy dog eyes. “Don’t you trust me, Yuuri?”

“Um…sure.” He’s surprised to realize that he means it. 

“How much?” Victor asks, leaning forward.

“Um…a normal amount,” Yuuri says breathlessly as Victor closes the distance between them. 

“This much?”

He wakes to the fading phantom sensation of a pair of lips on his own and a dawning anxiety.

Crap. He can place it now. He likes Victor.

After another failed attempt at shooting a fireball into a helpfully constructed ice target, Victor asks, “What’s up with you today? You’re not focused at all.”

“Um…just…nothing.”

“Just nothing.” Victor narrows his eyes contemplatively. “That sounds like a lie. Are you lying to me now, Yuuri?”

“No! Well, yes, a little, but—”

“What’s the problem?” Victor sits down next to Yuuri. Too close. Flushing lightly, Yuuri repositions himself to face away from Victor, memories of his dream still fresh in his mind.

“Why are you always so close?” Yuuri asks abruptly. 

“What do you mean?”

“Like…” Yuuri gestures helplessly at the space between them, which is quite small. “You’re always nearby, and touching me, and—and I want to know why.”

Victor pauses, looking up at the sky. “I’m always cold, you know that?”

“Huh? Like your hands?”

“Like all of me. I’m an ice spirit, so it’s not strange, but…I never knew what it felt like to be warm, before meeting you.” Victor flashes a smile at Yuuri, surprisingly soft. “I like it. I like being near you.”

“…Oh.” So he’s basically a human blanket. 

Victor, for all of his naïveté regarding human social conventions, is actually quite perceptive. “That makes you sad. Why?”

“I just sort of wish you liked being close to me because you liked me,” Yuuri mumbles, then turns red. “L-like as a person! Not like, um, the other thing, obviously, because—”

“Of course I like you,” Victor says matter-of-factly. 

Yuuri stops in the middle of his rant, slowly turning redder. “Oh.”

“Don’t you like me, Yuuri?”

“…Yeah. More than I should, maybe.” The last part is muttered, and he’s not sure if Victor hears it, until he speaks up again.

“I don’t think there’s any shoulds, with us. Just…just who we are. Yes?”

Yuuri looks over at Victor, his beautiful smile and his long hair, and his heart pounds. Fricking dream. “Yes.”

“Let’s try the fireball again, okay?” Victor extends his hand to pull Yuuri up, and Yuuri takes it. It’s cold, like normal, but he can feel his warmth leeching into the icy skin. It comforts him, somehow, to know that he can leave his mark on Victor like that.

He tries the fireball again as instructed, and this time he hits the target right on center.

\----------------------

His newfound realization surprisingly doesn’t really impact their relationship as much as he expected. Victor is still Victor, and Yuuri is still Yuuri, just a Yuuri with a hopeless crush. 

Besides, he has other things to worry about, because Victor is acting strange. Like, stranger than normal.

“Victor? Are you doing all right?” Yuuri asks worriedly one day, when Victor loses track of his sentence midway through for the third time.

“…What? Yeah.”

“Are you lying now?” Yuuri jokes, but Victor’s face turns guilty.

“Yuuri…”

“You are,” Yuuri realizes. “You’re not okay, and you know why.”

“…Yes.”

“What’s wrong? Can I help?”

“Well, no.” 

“Why not?”

“Because you’re sort of part of the problem,” Victor says awkwardly.

“What? Me?”

“…You’re a fire mage, Yuuri. I’m an ice spirit.”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“I mentioned that I like being near you because you’re warm, but it’s not…good for me, not really. It’s sort of like getting heat exhaustion.”

Yuuri gapes, then scrabbles away from where he’s been sitting next to Victor. “I am so sorry!”

“No!” Victor yells, wide-eyed, then pauses. “That’s…not what I want.”

“But if I’m hurting you—”

“You’re not! Well, you are, but I—” Victor stops, looking pained. “I want you to stay by my side.”

“But I can’t! You’re melting, Victor!”

“Yuuri, I would melt a thousand times over if it meant I got to be with you for even a second more,” Victor says sincerely.

Yuuri starts to turn red. “Um?”

Continuing on obliviously, like he hadn’t said the single most romantic thing Yuuri had ever heard from anyone, he says, “There is a way you can help, but…”

Yuuri shakes off his embarrassment. “Then tell me! I’ll do it.”

“If we…breathe the same air, for a moment,” Victor says hesitantly. “I mentioned the soul was located in the right lung, right? If we exchange air, you can recharge my soul. It’s only a temporary fix, but…”

“Breathe the same air. Like…” Yuuri’s face turns exponentially redder. “Like a kiss?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

Yuuri lets out a shaky breath. “Like, um, one of us puts their mouth on the other.”

“Oh. Then yes.”

Yuuri clenches his eyes shut, then nods firmly. He can do this. It’s for Victor, after all. “Okay. I can do it.”

“Really?” Victor’s eyes are sparkling in a way they haven’t for a while. “Thank you so much.”

“Yeah. So I just—”

“Come over here, yes.” 

Yuuri scooches back over near Victor and looks nervously into his eyes. “Like this?”

“Sure.” Victor is smiling again, looking excited. “And then just put your mouth on mine and breathe.”

“Um. Yep. Okay.” He starts to lean forward.

“You might feel a bit lightheaded,” Victor says softly. “Really, if you don’t want to do this, then—”

“Shut up.”

Then he kisses him. Or, something close to it. He breathes into Victor’s mouth, and Victor inhales, and then Yuuri draws back. “Was that—”

“More,” Victor breathes, and leans back in.

Their lips meet again, but this time Victor licks into Yuuri’s open mouth, like he can’t get enough of the taste. Yuuri doesn’t think he’s lightheaded just because of the soul exchange anymore.

“Victor,” Yuuri says in between increasingly desperate kisses, “This is another thing only lovers do with each other, usually.”

“Then let’s be lovers,” Victor sighs into Yuuri, kissing him again, “Because I never want to do anything but this with you.”

“Because of the soul exchange?”

Victor stops for a second, shakes his head, smiling beatifically. “No, Yuuri. Because it’s you.”

Yuuri’s eyes widen, his heart beating erratically. 

“Is that all right?”

“Yeah,” Yuuri says with a smile of his own, then goes back to kissing Victor.

It’s much better than the dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is in celebration of today's yoi which i am still screaming about


	6. A Shattered Heart

Yuuri is lying in Victor’s bed, idly twining his hands through Victor’s hair, remembering when Victor first asked,

“Hey, what is a lover, anyway?”

Yuuri couldn’t help but laugh. “You don’t know?”

Victor pouts. “Shut up. You’re the worst for making fun of me all the time.”

“You make fun of me all the time in practice,” Yuuri had pointed out.

“Okay, true,” Victor conceded. “Anyway, back to lovers. You’ve told me they see each other naked, but why is that?”

“Because, um…that’s what people do sometimes when they like each other,” Yuuri said awkwardly. “And sometimes when they don’t, but, uh…basically there’s this thing where humans get naked together and, um…” Yuuri got progressively redder. “They put, um…”

By the end of that conversation, Yuuri was completely red and Victor was beaming. “Wow, that sounds like fun!”

“I wouldn’t know,” Yuuri mumbled. 

“No?” That same calculating look was back on Victor’s face.

Yuuri thought he might have turned purple. “No, Victor!”

“Aww. Why not?”

“Because we don’t love each other!”

“What’s love?”

Yuuri paused. “Oh, well, uh, that’s a big question. I guess…it’s when someone means more to you than anything else, and you’ll do anything for them, and you stay with them for always.”

“Really? For always?”

“As long as they still love each other, yeah.”

Victor had smiled quietly, looked down at his hands. “That sounds nice.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it does.”

\----------------------------

Victor wakes him up the next morning with a kiss, and the next, and the next. The few days pass in a blur of practice and talking and more kissing. Yuuri doesn’t know if he’s ever been happier than he is right now.

About four days after their first kiss, Yuuri is lying on Victor’s lap when he asks curiously, “Why is it that other people don’t soul exchange when they kiss?”

“Oh. Well, because I’m a spirit and you’re a human,” Victor says idly as he strokes Yuuri’s hair, then freezes.

Yuuri looks up at Victor. “Why should that matter?”

“Because…no reason, is why,” Victor says nervously. 

“That’s not very convincing.” Yuuri reaches up a hand to touch Victor’s cheek softly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!”

“You’re being really suspicious right now, Victor. Why won’t you talk to me?”

“…I don’t want you to not like me anymore,” Victor whispers, looking small and lost, like he does whenever Yuuri talks about his mom, or about leaving.

“I don’t think you could do anything that could make that happen, Victor,” Yuuri says, and beckons Victor down for a kiss. “Come on. I just want to help.”

Victor kisses Yuuri back desperately, then takes a deep breath. “Yuuri, do you know why I put up the time bubble over this castle?”

“No,” Yuuri says cautiously.

“I don’t think you know all that much about spirits. You know we make soul-bonded deals, but do you know why?”

“For fun? I dunno.”

“Yuuri, I’m trying to be serious, here. This is something most people don’t know.”

Yuuri frowns, but straightens up. “Okay. I’m listening.”

“Humans gain energy from food. Spirits gain energy from absorbing souls. Human souls. When a spirit makes a soul-bonded deal and a human doesn’t hold up their end of the deal, spirits take their soul, killing them instantly.”

“I…what?”

“I think you heard me.” Victor looks more solemn than Yuuri has ever seen him. “Soul exchanges work similarly, except on a more temporary basis. The reason I was affected by your heat in the first place is because I haven’t absorbed a soul in a long time. See, on average, a spirit needs a new soul every five years or so. Using the time bubble, I managed to get that number down to every hundred years.”

“…How old are you?”

“About three hundred.”

“So you’ve stolen souls before.” Yuuri looks down at his shirt, trying to process, then suddenly makes the connection. “My clothes. You said they were from some other lost soul. You meant that literally.”

“…Yes.” 

“Why are you telling me this?” Yuuri asks, struggling to keep calm instead of screaming, crying.

“I haven’t…fed…in about a hundred and six years.”

“So…”

“So when I found you that night in the ice, I was on my way to a village to find someone. And I found you.”

Yuuri draws back, horrified. “You wanted to…”

“We made a deal,” Victor says quietly, sadly, running his hand through his hair, looking like the weight of the world is crushing him. “You knew who I was all along.”

“No, Victor,” Yuuri says, and his heart hurts. “I don’t think I ever really knew you at all.”

Victor looks up, and there are tears in his eyes. “Don’t say that. Don’t make it sound like all of this meant nothing.”

“Did it? Was I ever anything but your next meal?” Yuuri bursts out. 

“Of course! You…I…all of this was so important. You don’t know. You don’t understand how I feel about you, Yuuri.”

“No, I don’t! I don’t understand anything! I thought…I even…” Yuuri shakes his head, and now he’s crying too. “What else are you hiding, Victor?”

“I…”

“What other secrets do you have? What else aren’t you telling me?”

“I…can’t…”

“If you don’t tell me everything right now, I’ll know you never cared about me.” The tears are flowing in earnest. “Did you ever care about me, Victor?”

“Yes, Yuuri. I…everything I’ve done has been because I care about you more than you will ever know or understand.”

“Then tell me.”

Victor sighs, then raises pained eyes to look straight at Yuuri. “Our deal was finished from the first day you got here.”

Yuuri’s eyes widen. “What?”

“You were always free to go.”

His heart shatters into a million pieces. “…I’m leaving.”

“Wait!” Victor rushes forward, hugs the retreating Yuuri from behind. “Please. Please stay. I need you, Yuuri, I need you so much, I—”

“Because you’re hungry?!”

“Because I think I love you!”

Yuuri stops in his tracks. Then he shakes his head, once, slowly. “Goodbye, Victor.”

Victor is left watching Yuuri leave through tears that freeze as soon as they touch his cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY
> 
> i actually had this written yesterday but i figured i'd give y'all some happy time with the Kiss before totally killing the mood lol =v=;;;


	7. Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> death mention

Yuuri goes through thousands of different ways to say ‘I’m back’ to his family, to apologize for being gone for three and a half months, to apologize for everything. He can only hope they’ll forgive him, because he hasn’t really forgiven himself, yet.

In the end, he just walks in and says, “Hey guys. I’m home.”

His mother’s face turns white like she’s seen a ghost, and she starts screaming and runs away. She comes back a few minutes later with his father and sister in tow, crying and babbling incoherently.

Mari is the one to speak up, eventually. “You’re dead.”

He knits his brows together. “Um, no?”

“We had a funeral.”

Yuuri winces. “I mean…it was only three and a half months, but I guess I can see why you would have thought that I was…”

“Three and a half months?! Yuuri, it’s been five years,” his mother sobs, rushing forward and taking him in her trembling arms. “We all thought…five years, Yuuri!”

Yuuri’s eyes widen as he pats his mother’s back comfortingly, then narrow. The time bubble. Looks like that’s something else Victor neglected to tell him. 

He shakes his head to chase away the thought of Victor, then murmurs, “I’m so, so sorry, Mom. You too, Dad, Mari. I didn’t…I’m sorry.”

Then they’re all hugging and more than a few tears are shed, some by Yuuri himself, and he wonders for a moment why he ever left.

“Where were you all this time?” his dad asks after everything has calmed down and they’re all eating katsudon together. 

“I was…learning,” Yuuri says hesitantly, uncertain how much he should reveal. “To control my magic.”

“Where?”

Yuuri can’t help but laugh a bit helplessly at that. “I don’t think you’d know it, Dad.”

“Then from whom?”

“His name i—was Victor,” Yuuri says quietly, and all of the pain comes crashing back.

“What was he like?” his mom inquires through a mouthful of food.

Yuuri pauses. “Frustrating, but brilliant. He has the most control over his magic of anyone I’ve ever met. He’s a little bit silly, and really oblivious, but he’s strong and lonely and beautiful and…and…” Yuuri’s tears are back, big and thick and rolling down his cheeks. “And I l—really liked him. But he lied, and I couldn’t take it, so I left.”

“Oh, Yuuri,” his mom says, scooching closer to him to lay her head on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“Did it work?” his sister asks.

“What?”

“Did you learn to control your flames?”

Yuuri idly conjures a small flame, staring into it as if it’ll answer all of his lingering questions. “Yeah.”

“Then you can reapply for the King’s Mages!” his mother pipes up excitedly. “Your dream, Yuuri!”

“…Yeah.” He doesn’t understand why for some reason the prospect doesn’t fill him with the same excitement as it used to. 

_Because it was always so much more exciting to be with Victor,_ a treacherous voice in his head whispers. _Because he broke your heart, but you still—_

Yuuri shakes his head. “Anyway…I’m tired. Can I sleep?”

“Yes, of course,” his mom answers, exchanging a look with the other family members. “We kept your room the same all these years.”

“Thanks.”

He enters his old room, looking around at everything like he’s never seen it before. His bed, his clothes, the illustrations on his walls—

In a fit of sudden anger, he tears them all down, ripping them into shreds and tossing the pieces into the trash basket, then takes off his clothes and puts those in the basket as well. He doesn’t want any trace of Victor left on him.

 _Don’t you feel the warmth where he kissed you still? Don’t you still hear his voice ringing in your ears? You can’t get rid of someone who’s a part of you, because they’re with you for always,_ that same voice tells him. 

He crumples on the floor, too tired to even cry anymore, too tired to fight. He falls asleep like that, curled in on himself on the hard surface, trying to tell himself it’s not because it’s the closest thing to the ice bed he slept on in the castle.

It doesn’t really get easier, after that. His family shows him off around town, the miracle prodigal son. He makes an appointment with the King’s Mages. He sleeps most of the time, and eats katsudon, and dips in the hot spring, and mopes around the onsen.

His family have taken to exchanging looks almost every time they see him, and they’re not exactly subtle about it either. He can’t bring himself to get angry about it. He knows he’s not the same. Victor changed him.

The day comes for his audition for the King’s Mages. He goes through the exercises that he’s replicated so many times with Victor, the routine almost boring. By the time he’s done, the proctor is practically sparkling, she’s so excited.

“We always knew you had potential,” she bubbles, “but this is spectacular, really! I can’t reveal the results yet, but between you and me, I’m almost certain you’ll get in!”

Yuuri smiles without any emotion behind it. “Thanks.”

Sure enough, he’s accepted a couple of days later, which means he has access to the King’s library. A dark curiosity leads him to look at all of the books they have on spirits.

Spirits. Mischievous, powerful, make soul-bonded deals. He digs further. They feed on human souls that they procure from aforementioned deals. They usually win these deals by promising to fulfill the human’s biggest wish, then ask for something nearly impossible in return.

This gives Yuuri pause. Why would Victor ask for something so simple, then? Information about the outside world isn’t exactly an impossible request.

He digs further. Spirits are known to have memory problems—Yuuri had been subject to this often enough, so it’s not a surprise—and are known to have both no knowledge of the human world and no interest in learning about it.

Yuuri frowns down at the text. That doesn’t sound like Victor at all. Victor had always loved nothing more than to ask questions upon questions, always questing to know everything he could possibly know about the human world.

He digs further. Finally, in a small, dusty book crammed in the back of a dimly-lit bookshelf, he finds a book that makes a passing reference to how, the more souls a spirit consumes, the less they remember of and the less they are interested in their old life.

Old life?

He searches for days, but can’t find anything more about it. He’ll have to go to the Head.

The Head Mage is incredibly old. Nobody knows how old, but some people whisper that he’s over five hundred. Others whisper that he’s lived that long through dark magic. Nobody dares to whisper in front of him, though, because he is as powerful as he is old.

“Sir?” Yuuri asks timidly. “May I speak to you?”

The man turns his eyes on Yuuri, looking at him curiously. “You’re new, aren’t you? The man who came back from the dead.”

“Um…yes. Sort of.”

“You’ve been spending a lot of time in the library, trying to learn about spirits.”

Yuuri frowns. “How did you know that?”

“I know many things,” the Head says vaguely. 

“Okay. Then can you tell me why I found a book that mentioned spirits not remembering their old life? What old life?”

The Head squints at Yuuri, then sighs. “Do you really want to know?”

“Yes, please.”

“If you’re certain, then I can tell you.”

He leads Yuuri over to a bench, then conjures a scene of ice in the air. Yuuri startles at the familiar element, but when the Head raises his eyebrow in question, Yuuri just shrugs.

“Here’s how it goes. You know the saying about how power corrupts?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Souls are incredibly powerful, and that power corrupts. Not just in the moral sense, but in the biological sense. For spirits, when they consume a soul, they are recharged, but they also become further from who they were originally.” He illustrates each point with his ice.

“And who were they originally?”

The Head tilts his head. “Why, my boy, I’m surprised you haven’t realized already. Spirits were originally human.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just settin things up for the next chapter
> 
> btw this'll be ending in the next few chapters! idk how many exactly yet but probably two or three left? so be prepared for that!


	8. History

“I beg your pardon?” 

“Spirits are humans who committed the ultimate taboo and performed the soul-bonding ritual on another human.” 

Yuuri brings a trembling hand up to his mouth. He suddenly feels nauseous. “You mean…Victor…?”

The Head’s eyes widen minutely. “What did you just say?”

“Oh, um…”

“Victor? Did you say Victor?”

“Um…yes. But…”

The Head places his hands on Yuuri’s shoulders, shaking him, eyes wild. “Do you know him? Do you know where he is? Tell me!”

Yuuri draws back, confused. “I…”

The Head apparently realizes his actions and takes his hands off of Yuuri. “I apologize. That is a name I haven’t heard in a long time.”

Yuuri’s head whips up straight to look at the other man. “You knew him?!”

“Yes. He was a prodigy, one of the most gifted ice mages of his time. He was a rising force in the King’s Mages, and there were many people who thought…” The Head purses his lips. “Anyway, when he was twenty, his mother became violently ill. Nobody knows what possessed him, but he emerged the next morning with his mother dead and no memory of his prior life. He had taken her soul.”

“Why would he do that?” Yuuri bursts out, confused and angry. “Victor wouldn’t—he—”

“But he did,” The Head says solemnly. “He performed the ritual, there’s no doubt about that. I can only assume he was consumed by the desire for power. Anyway, he was chased out of the kingdom after that. Unfortunately, he took the only copy of the ritual with him.”

Through the haze of his racing mind, something about that strikes Yuuri as odd. He frowns. “Unfortunately?”

The Head opens his mouth, then smiles. “Well, from an academic standpoint, I mean.”

Yuuri narrows his eyes. “Hm.”

He wants to question The Head further, but suddenly, another mage comes running in. “Head! A spirit has been spotted at the outskirts of town!”

“Really?” The Head looks calm, but peering closer, Yuuri can sense some kind of…excitement coming from him? “Assemble our fire mages.”

“Fire, sir? What makes you think it’s an ice spirit?”

The Head pauses. “Just a hunch. I have something to do, so please wait for further instructions. Oh, and Yuuri?”

“Yes?” 

“You’re not to come along, this time.”

Something like dread begins to settle in the pit of Yuuri’s stomach.

Victor.

He rushes home, yelling, “Have you seen a guy with long silver hair here?”

“Yuuri? No, why?”

He doesn’t bother to respond, only rushes back out, when he sees an ice spire beginning to rise above the skyline from a few blocks away.

He runs the entire way there. Sure enough, Victor is there, collapsed on the ground outside a dilapidated house, surrounded by growing walls of ice.

“Victor!”

Victor raises his head dully. “Yuuri?” Then he turns even paler, if possible. “Yuuri! Watch o—”

Yuuri is suddenly surrounded by a hollow ice block.

“Victor,” comes the voice. It’s familiar. The Head is standing there, hand outstretched.

“You…” Victor clutches his head. “You…who…”

“You know who I am, Victor.”

Victor screams, high-pitched, still cradling his head in his hands. “No—I don’t—”

“Open your eyes,” The Head booms. “You are Victor Nikiforov, son of—”

“No!”

“—Nikiforov, and the biggest thorn in my side since the moment I met you.” The Head’s face twists into a sneer. “It’s a thorn I intend to remove now.”

Victor’s screaming has tapered off, and now he uncurls himself from his position on the ground and stands, looking regal and composed. Yuuri can tell that his eyes are unfocused, though, and he’s still wavering on his feet a bit. “You’re right. I do know you, Yakov.”

“So you’re back. Is it for this one here?”

Victor turns his face to Yuuri, who has his hands pressed up against the ice block, and smiles serenely. “Yes. Always.”

“Interesting. I’ll take pleasure in killing him as well, then.”

Victor laughs, but it’s not his usual warm, rich laugh. It sounds darker, more alien. “Like you killed me last time?”

“…That was a mistake, yes, but I won’t make it again.”

“Victor?” Yuuri asks, confused.

“This man was my mentor, Yuuri, so when my mother became sick, I came to him and begged him to help me find a way to help her. He gave me the instructions to a ritual.”

“The soul-bonding ritual,” Yuuri realizes with a flash. 

“Yes.”

“But why?”

“We both misread it. I thought it would save my mother, and he thought it would kill me in the process.”

Yuuri looks at Yakov, whose wrinkled hands are clenched.

“Why would he want to kill you?”

“There were rumors that he was getting old and feeble, and I was too powerful. Some said I was next in line to take his place.”

“Enough chitchat,” Yakov snarls. “I know you have the ritual.”

Victor shrugs. “Yes.”

“Do you know how long I searched for that ritual, only to give it away to my biggest enemy? Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to return?” He grins, frenzied. “And when you finally do, it’s for a pitiful fire mage! It’s hilarious!”

“Perhaps,” Victor says calmly. “I think you’re underestimating him, though.”

“Oh, definitely,” Yuuri says from behind Yakov, fire in his hands, the walls of the hollow cube long since melted. “Bad idea, in my opinion.”

“You—how—”

“Had a good teacher.” Yuuri tosses a fireball idly up into the air. “I’m sure we all know how this will go down, if you try and fight against me. But I welcome you to try.”

Yakov scowls. “You plan to kill me?”

“Nope! I plan to have you arrested by all of those nice fire mages that you must have forgotten you assembled and are standing nearby.” Yuuri smiles pleasantly. “I’m pretty sure from their faces they heard all of that.”

Yakov turns white.

As the mages lead Yakov away in magic-binding iron chains, Yuuri grins and runs up to Victor, more out of habit than anything.

“Wasn’t that great? We totally got him.”

“Yeah,” Victor says softly. “Yuuri, I…”

“Victor, I’m still mad. You lied to me.”

Victor nods, looking down at the ground. “Yes.”

“But,” Yuuri says fondly, reaching a hand up to brush Victor’s hair out of his eyes. “As angry as I am, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you for the past few months. I haven’t been able to stop missing you. So, I guess what I mean to say is, I think I love you too.”

Victor’s face slowly lights up. “Really?”

“Really.”

“That’s good.” And with that, Victor finally runs out of energy and collapses to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls note the updated chapter count! this'll be ending in two chapters!
> 
> how would they both misread the spell so badly? nobody...knows.........not even the author lol *handwaves everything like a true professional*


	9. Bond

Yuuri gets Victor home and debates whether to leave him out on the front doorstep—not exactly safe, but colder, so?—when he remembers that the inn has an ice closet for the perishable food. Perfect. Well, okay, maybe not perfect, but it’ll work.

He manages to get Victor inside the inn and yells, “Mom, I need you to open the ice closet, quick!”

His mom comes running in and gapes openly at the slumped-over man in the arms of her son. “Yuuri? What’s going on? Who is that?”

“Victor. He’s hurt somehow.”

“Victor? Like the person you’ve been moping over for the past—”

“Mom!”

“Yes, all right. Ice closet. Sure.”

She opens up the ice closet, and Yuuri lugs Victor in, wishing he had an ability that could help rather than hurt in this situation. He stares desperately at Victor, whispering, “Wake up, wake up…”

“Yuuri? Can I help somehow?” his mom asks quietly. “What do you think is wrong?”

“He’s out of the time bubble, which means time is moving normally again for him,” Yuuri thinks out loud. “Which means…he’s hungry!”

His mom looks doubtfully down at the passed-out man. “Must be _really_ hungry.”

“No, mom, he’s a spirit. He feeds on human souls.”

“On _what_?”

“Which means…if I…” Yuuri’s eyes widen, and he bends over to kiss Victor tenderly on the lips, forcing them open so that he can breathe into Victor’s mouth.

“Oh my,” Yuuri’s mom comments amusedly. 

“Come on, come on…” Yuuri mutters, ignoring her. “Again.”

Yuuri breathes into Victor’s mouth once more. His eyes are squeezed shut, so he doesn’t notice Victor has woken up again until Victor’s mouth starts moving against his, a hand raising up behind his head to hold him closer.

Yuuri pulls away and sees Victor smiling weakly. “That’s a nice way to wake up.”

“Don’t get used to it,” Yuuri says through slightly teary eyes, and leans over to kiss Victor again. 

Victor looks around dubiously. “Where am I, exactly?”

“Ice closet,” Yuuri’s mom supplies helpfully, eyes twinkling. “Hello, I’m Katsuki Hiroko, Yuuri’s mother.”

“Nice to meet you,” Victor greets, struggling to sit up. “Sorry we couldn’t meet under better circumstances.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” his mother waves. “It’s lovely to finally put a face to the name my son mentions so often. Sometimes while he’s sleeping.”

“Mom!”

“Oh, really?” Victor’s eyes glint mischievously. 

“Yes, really. The way he talks about you, you’d think you’re a god or something.”

“ _Mom!_ ”

“Well, not quite,” Victor says, oozing self-satisfaction. “But it’s nice to be appreciated.”

“Do you two, ah…want some time alone?”

“That would be lovely,” Victor says, all charm.

“All right. No sex in the ice closet, Yuuri.”

“MOM!” Yuuri yells, thoroughly horrified, as she drifts off laughing.

“So, this is a lovely ice armoire,” Victor says blithely as soon as she’s out of the way. 

“Closet,” Yuuri corrects.

“Sure.” Victor is grinning, eyes fond. “You know, it’s only been a day, but I’ve missed you so much, Yuuri.”

“A day? Victor, it’s been—oh.”

“What?”

“Time bubble,” Yuuri reminds him. “For me, it’s been a few months.”

Victor’s eyes go wide. “Really? I never realized.”

“No?”

“No, of course not. If I knew, I would have run after you immediately.”

“Why didn’t you?” Yuuri inquires, more out of curiosity than anything.

Victor sighs, eyes now downcast. “I…realized after you left just how much I had hurt you. It was never really my intention, but it happened anyway, and I spent a while wondering whether I even deserved to be in the same space as you after what I did. And then I spent the rest of the time trying to think of a way to make it up to you.”

“Victor—”

“No, please let me say this. An apology isn’t enough here. So I have an idea. A gesture of sorts.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to release the bonds on all of the souls I’ve ever taken.”

Yuuri pauses. “All of them? Even—”

“Even my mother’s, yes. I was never meant to have it in the first place.” Victor shrugs, expression vulnerable. “I don’t know what will happen if I do it, but I want to do it anyway. For you.”

“Victor—”

“Will you let me do this?” Victor asks, lifting his eyes and dropping a soft kiss on Yuuri’s palm. “Will you let me show you how much I love you?”

“Victor, if it’s dangerous, I can’t—” Yuuri gulps, looking back at Victor. “I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you, not after knowing what it’s like to live without you.”

“You won’t,” Victor says confidently. “Please.”

“…You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” Victor takes a deep breath, then pulls out a crumpled, old piece of paper.

“The soul-bonding ritual also has a counterspell,” he explains at Yuuri’s questioning look. 

“Why did you never do it before?”

“I never remembered I had anything to go back to.” Victor smiles gently at Yuuri. “Or anyone. You don’t even realize how much you’ve given to me, do you?”

Yuuri flushes. “I mean…same.”

Victor laughs. “Thank you. May I kiss you?”

“You don’t have to ask,” Yuuri breathes, looking at Victor through his lashes shyly.

Victor groans, then launches himself forward, pressing his lips against Yuuri urgently once, twice, three times. Eventually he stops counting. Yuuri puts everything of himself into the kiss—all of his fears, all of his anger, but more importantly, all of his love. 

(And also tongue. There is a lot of tongue involved as well.)

When they separate, they’re both breathing hard and Yuuri is flushing. 

“All right.” Victor grins. “I’m all charged up now.”

Then he starts the complicated incantation. Yuuri watches worriedly.

When he finally finishes, Yuuri asks breathlessly, “Do you feel any different?”

“Not real—agh!” Victor lets out a piercing moan. Something nebulous lifts out of his chest. Then another, then another. They coalesce into a large shimmering blob, then shoot into the sky in a silver light.

Victor slumps over on the ground.

Yuuri is really getting quite tired of that happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is incredibly cheesy
> 
> EDIT: thanks to absolutely for pointing out that i way overinflated the amount of time that would have passed outside of the bubble. it should have been around 20 days. i'm keeping it the same for Dramatic Effect lol but sorry about the inaccuracy!


	10. Legend

Through his panic, Yuuri notices something strange almost immediately. Well, other than his lover (and they’re really going to have to discuss that term when Victor wakes up) being passed out on the ground.

Victor is shivering.

“Mom!” Yuuri yells.

“What?!” She yells back. “I didn’t even say anything this time!”

“No, no, not that. I need blankets. And a futon.”

“I thought I said no se—”

“No, Mom, not for that!”

She collects the requested items dutifully and lays them out in an extra room, while Yuuri once more drags Victor throughout his home.

“Does he do this often?” his mom asks delicately as they both stare at his face.

“Increasingly.” 

“You must have really worn him out.” 

Yuuri colors again. “Jeez, mom!”

“Okay, okay.” She pauses, peers closer at Victor. “Is it just me or is his face more…” She trails off. “Never mind.”

“No, what were you going to say?”

“He just looks older for some reason,” she says, sounding incredibly confused. “My eyes must be going.”

Yuuri looks closer as well. “No, wait, you’re right.” All the color immediately leaves his face. “Oh, no. He’s three hundred years old.”

His mom squints dubiously down at Victor. “Uh…okay.”

“Without the power of the other souls sustaining him…it must be catching up to him all at once.” The tears come quickly, unbidden. “I don’t know how to stop this. I don’t know how to save him.”

“Yuuri…” It’s obvious his mother doesn’t know what’s going on, but she still reaches out to comfort him.

And then Yuuri’s eyes catch on the paper, still in Victor’s hands.

If he gives…if he gives Victor his soul…

He bites his lip in instinctual terror. No! He can’t. Without their souls, humans die.

But is he really living without Victor in the world, anyway?

Victor will be sad, the voice in his head tells him, sounding just as terrified. He’ll go back to being alone—

He won’t remember me. He’ll be a spirit again. Full memory wipe.

And he’ll be alive.

Yuuri makes his decision.

“Mom…” he says quietly. “I love you.”

“Yuuri?”

“Tell Dad and Mari I love them too.”

“You’re scaring me.”

Yuuri chokes out a laugh. “You and me both.”

Then he starts the incantation.

\----------------------------

_There are very few people that know any details about the soul-bonding ritual, but those who do know a thing or two say several things._

_The first is that it automatically kills the person from whom the soul is taken. This is technically incorrect._

_The second is that the person who takes the soul immediately loses their memory. This is also technically incorrect._

_Both of these are incorrect because the original purpose of the soul-bonding ritual is not to steal, but to give._

Victor wakes up to Yuuri’s mother sobbing over her lifeless son. His eyes are closed, his skin porcelain and cold.

“How could you,” she cries, and he’s not completely certain whether she’s talking to Yuuri or him. “How could you do this?”

His eyes widen, and he scrambles over to Yuuri. “Yuuri! What happened?!”

“He—did some sort of spell, and—”

Victor recognizes the paper immediately, and his eyes fill up with tears. “Yuuri…no.”

“Fix this,” she wails, pounding ineffectually against Victor’s chest. “Make him better.”

“I—I—”

It is then that he realizes that he can feel Yuuri’s soul alongside his, warm and comforting in his heart. Well, his right lung, but. Now is probably not the time to be pedantic.

_While the soul-bonding ritual is written as a singular event, it is actually meant to be two separate, but equally important spells. An exchange borne of love and the desire to be together for always with the one that has your heart—your soul, if you will._

Victor does not know any of this. All he knows is that he can’t be without Yuuri.

“Well, here goes,” he mutters, and performs the incantation.

A bright light fills the room, almost blinding. Both Yuuri and Victor are lifted into the air, surrounded by something incandescent. Their souls rise from their chests and circle each other, then merge.

Yuuri’s mom watches in awe as the large blob splits in two again and slowly floats back over to the unconscious men. 

They’re dropped rather unceremoniously on the ground by the spell, and the light dissipates as quickly as it appeared.

“Yuuri? Victor?” Katsuki Hiroko whispers hesitantly. 

They both wake up at the same instant, gasping for air.

“Victor—”

“Yuuri—”

They stop at the same time, then laugh delightedly in concert.

“I can feel you,” Victor says joyously. “I can feel you, Yuuri.”

“Me too,” Yuuri murmurs. “It’s like you’re right here.” He taps his chest wonderingly. 

“Exactly,” Victor breathes, then gets up to encircle Yuuri in a tight hug.

All of a sudden, he starts yelling. “What was that supposed to be, huh? Did you seriously think that I would be okay with you sacrificing yourself to save me?!”

“I thought you wouldn’t remember me,” Yuuri says awkwardly. “I thought you wouldn’t care.”

“Yuuri, I could never forget you,” Victor says sternly, but his tone is belied by the tender way he brushes Yuuri’s cheeks with his fingers, like he can hardly believe he’s real.

“You’re the one who left me first,” Yuuri accuses, all of a sudden angry. “So it’s your fault.”

“…Yuuri,” Victor says fondly.

“What the crap did you even mean, grand gesture? What kind of a gesture is dying?!”

“Yuuri,” Yuuri’s mom says urgently.

“I can’t believe _you_ thought _I_ would be okay with you being gone! What’s wrong with you, you ridiculous fop, I—”

“Yuuri!” Victor and Yuuri’s mom yell together.

“What?!”

“You’re on fire,” Victor says, then beams. “And you’re making it snow at the same time. It’s actually really adorable.”

“It’d be more adorable if there weren’t scorch marks on my nice floor,” Hiroko says irritatedly. 

The flames go out and snow cloud disappear rapidly, Yuuri flushing. “Sorry, mom.”

“I may be a fop, whatever that is,” Victor says lowly, moving towards Yuuri with a predatory gleam in his eye, “But you still love me, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“Good. Because I’m pretty sure I’ve got fire magic now as well, and I’d really like to try making you warm.”

Yuuri turns a dark red. “Victor! In front of my mom, really?!”

“I’ll leave,” she volunteers. “I don’t have any interest in seeing my son get ravished.”

“I do!” Victor chirps, while Yuuri moans and puts his face in his hands.

When she leaves, though, Victor is surprisingly silent as he just holds Yuuri close.

“Victor?”

“I can’t believe I almost lost you,” he says quietly. “I don’t know what I would have done if the spell hadn’t worked.”

“But it did,” Yuuri says, rubbing his hand over Victor’s back.

Victor nods, just as quiet, and Yuuri decides that he has to change the subject.

“So…it’s weird that there was a legend about you, considering how isolated you were in that castle of yours,” he says musingly. “The legend of the ice princess. Hah.”

Victor groans. “No, I know exactly how that happened, actually.”

“Huh? How?”

“I used to play a game with my friends when I was younger and they always made me play the princess because of my long hair. I sort of adopted it as a nickname--the ice princess. I guess it must have gotten around when I went missing.” Victor sighs. “It seems so silly now that I’m so different. Maybe I should cut my hair or something.”

“No,” Yuuri says, stroking through it and kissing the strands. “I think it suits you.”

Victor smiles genuinely. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I think you should stay exactly how you are. Just you, here, with me.”

“I think that sounds nice.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it does.”

\---------------------------

There is a legend in the land. It tells of two men who went around doing good wherever they could, helping the lonely and disenfranchised to realize their dreams. It tells of their love, a love so strong that they gave each other their souls, and of the kingdom they built from that love—a kingdom made of fire and ice.

But that, dear friends, is an entirely different story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is silly too. this entire story is silly tho so i suppose it fits
> 
> anyway, thank you so much for coming on this journey with me! i hope you all enjoyed reading this even a fraction as much as i enjoyed writing it! i hope to see you all again on another fic :D

**Author's Note:**

> tysm for reading, i love you all! tumblr is at anuninterestingperson if u wanna yell about these cute children w me!


End file.
